The present invention relates to dolls including a portion configured to resemble a sports ball such as a football, soccer ball, baseball, basketball or any other sport playing piece, and more particularly to a doll having a sports ball body having removable accessories such as arms and legs which may be removed so that a user can play with the ball and later reattach the accessories to form the doll.
A number of sports doll products have been developed. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,441 shows a sports ball having a baseball head, baseball bat arms, football legs and a basketball body. The body parts are connected with Velcro((trademark)). U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,917 also shows a doll with Velcro((trademark)) attached appendages entitled Tear-Apart Stress Relief Doll and Method. These designs show that removable attachments to sports related dolls are known in the art. However, when the arms, legs and head of Byer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,441 are removed, connectors in the form of loops or hooks remain exposed which may interfere with the play of the ball or may become worn to the point of being unable to serve as a connector after continued use.
Accordingly, a need exists to protect the connectors in a sports doll product so that the sport ball may be utilized for a number of years without significant deterioration of the connectors due to the ball""s use as a ball.
The present invention relates to dolls which are comprised of a ball, or other simple playing piece which is connected to attachments to form a doll.
The ball portion of the doll is equipped with connector portions which have cooperating protective flaps which cooperate with the connector portions when the attachments are removed so that the connector portions are protected during play with the ball.